Hitler's Hidden Weakness
Mr. Cordell Hull, to back his belief in the coming victory of the British Empire, has declared that the German armies are spread very. thin. It is indeed true. There are German armies in France, in Belgium, in Holland, in- Norway, in Denmark, in Poland, in Hungary, in Rumania, in Italy, We do not know how many, but the total of these armies of oc- cupation must be at least two inil- lion men.
The problem of victualling them is rendered easier by the fact that they batten on the conquered or intimidated territories. But they must be supplied with many things which they cannot obtain locally:
By Britannicus
transport equipment, military stores, petrol, special foodstuffs. This requires a tremendous or- ganisation of transport and sup- ply, itself a heavy drain on Ger- many's national manpower.
the
It is likely, moreover, that these occupying troops have to be fre- quently changed The atmosphere of cold-shouldering or open hosti. lity in which they move among
or subjugated
subordinate peoples is Intensely demoralising. Furthermore, they are in danger, in such circumstances, of hearing the truth about the war from the British radio or other non-Nazi sources. An expeditionary force in а fever-ridden tropical zone, where white men could not long keep their health and vigour, would not be more difficult to maintain than Hitler's garrisons In conquered countries.
generous fault, but one the magni. tude of the present issues makes
Hitler's problems of lines of a dangerous one. Perhaps, too, his own special zest for London communication are wholly differ- makes him too tender of yestedent from those of the British Em- interests in local government pire. Our lines are like limbs- which need to be handled far healthy, wieldable instruments of more roughly. But my own feel-action, even if they are exposed to ing is clear that he is on top of fracture. His are like the veins
bloated arteries of a
and his work, and that, as Minister, he and
His empire is vital share in securing its publi- is one of the half dozen supreme dropsical body.
its administrators this country has overgrown flesh rather than bone cation and
and muscle, produced since Lord Haldane.
character.
in determining
Yet we must not be deluded into Mr. Hugh Dalton, as Minister of Of the separate Ministers, Mr.
underrating his strength. By Attlee appears least in the public Economic Warfare, has a post the summoning his forces to a parti- Throughout the OC-
view and is quite definitely the implications of which are now cular point he can, for the time forces cupied area
most influential. Shy, undramatic, far more narrow than when he being, deploy an immense con- without a trace of egotism, he undertook it before the German centration of power. Those two ready to spring into being ters have a full share in all the
prefers to work behind the scenes conquest of France and the Low million or more troops of occupa
It to throw off the yoke. Bri- central decisions of the War Ca-
is not easy tion are but a fraction of his total binet. They have responsibility. He is slow to make up his mind Countries.
his judge
work tain
since armies. Their existence does not doubtless must therefore, for the achievements, but, once he has made it up, he
has a persistence that carries almost all of it is of a neces- prevent him from gathering to- launch some kind of an not less than for the blunders. If
Dakar was not a Labour plan, Mr. great weight. His fault is an un-sarily confidential character. It is gether an expeditionary force for
due diffidence which tends will offensive, but
to significant, I think, that Mr. Dal-an attack on Great Britain or Ire- not Attlee and his colleagues accept make him silent where speech is ton who, before the formation of land or a march into yet un- have to sustain it alone. ed that woeful experiment; if Mr.
issue where it stood before, the seen him as constantly and con-best-hated Labour member in the
It is in the more distant future, which has to rely on an Labour Ministers bear their part tinuously in action as I have will House of Commons, has a very
yield no primacy to any Minister different reputation among the when Hitler's great effort of 1941 in what I think is Mr. Churchill's but Mr. Churchill himself for the Tories to-day. They know that, has been repelled, and when the appeal to lawlessness and main error of judgment.
value of the counsel he has not less than Mr. Churchill him- Empire's striking power is steadi- a glorification of brute
It is self, he is out to beat Hitler; and ly growing, that they may prove But it is not beyond the mark brought to the war effort.
characteristic of him that neither force has within it the to attribute certain special em-
kind of energy the character of that the resistance of the sub- seeds of its own destruc-phasis to their urgency. To them, bad news can perturb him nor they know that he has the special a fatal weakness. It will be then demands. No Labour jugated peoples will be at its most tion.
Hitler above all, are due the great im- good give him undue confidence. his post provements in agricultural wages, He has the respect of all, and the Minister had so difficult a past to effective.
may then be cholce between No, it is not simply that old age pensions, the treatment of more respect, the more intimately live down among his critics. My faced with the
own judgment is that they re- withdrawing his forces from the Britain must win. Some- the unemployed, compensation for he is known.
cognise in him a formidable mas-scene of each national uprising war injuries, the increases in pay
Mr. Bevin was the outstanding ter of the art he requires for his and sending still more soldiers to thing very much bigger to the armed forces and their de-
trade union world
function.
hold it down. That would be a when he became Minister of La-
choice between conserving his than Britain or America pendents. Without Mr. Bevin's figure in the
powerful aid, it is, I think, cer-
bour. He has done some admir- must win the tremendous tain
at the expense of his that industrial relations
The outstanding fact about the strength struggle now going on. would have been far less smooth able work there. Above all, he
than they have been; and it is has given the trade unions the Labour Ministers is the fullness prestige and conserving his pres- There must be a victory above all because the workers status that was their due in the of their unity and collaboration. tige, at the expense of his strength.
end. won, in the interests of all have such confidence in their re-coufics of the government, and with the Prime Minister. Partly, It would be the beginning of the presentatives that the phenomenal he has seen to it with the know that is the depth of the common have confronted; the world, for the idea of increases in war output have taken that the standards of labour Churchill in paying great atten-power is slowly closing upon the
ledge born of long experience, danger. they
The tron ring of British world partly, it is the wisdom of Mr. freedom under law, of place. It is an open secret that
the administration of the very not relaxed at any point where security from aggression, difficult problems connected with danger to the workers health is tion to their views in those fields Nazis. Inside is still another ring. of adjustment by peaceful interned aliens has greatly Im-involved. He has initiated half a of which they have special know immobile now but ready to crush dozen experiments of importance. ledge. Critles ask in bewilderment the inner kernel of Hitlerism when proved since Mr. "Herbert Morri- His public utterances have given how Socialists can agree so well the ripe, moment comes. It is com son became Home Secretary, and he, and his vivid Assistant Secre-him perhaps the widest audience with a Prime Minister, who, au posed of the imprisoned peoples of There was a time when tary, Miss Ellen Wilkinson, have of any Minister except Mr. Chur- his life, has been their ardent on Europe who will one day turn every attempt at flying begun, at least, to tackle the shel- chill, and it is already clear that ponent. There is a very simple upon their gaolers. Then will the ter problem (they have not yet when the lines of reconstruction answer to this view. Mr. Chur- Nazis, learn with sickening clarity
its own creators. had failed. There was solved It) with energy and im- begin to be laid, Mr. Bevin will chill's one aim is victory, and to that a prison-house cul entomb then no indication that agination. These next weeks will count as vitally as anyone on the it he is prepared to sacrifice all the preconceptions of his past. Labour side. bring forth an official statement
career. The one thing he asks of the limitation that kept from the British government on
Mr. Morrison, after a brief any proposal is what it contri- dor's judgment of persons, and humans on the ground its war aims of the first impor- perind at the Ministry of Supply butes to victory.
in his grasp of the large aspects of strategy. He hus filled a vital would ever be overcome. secret that Labour Ministers, and where he did a Herculean job of Colonel Lindbergh sees especially Mr, Attlee, have had a reorganisation, has now found, I have left to the last the posi-role with delicacy and vigour.
think, the task to which he is tion of Mr. A. V. Alexander, the All-in-all, the position is not "no indication that war
ideally suited both by tempera- First Lord of the Admiralty, unsatisfactory. The great tests, of mant and experience. Mr. Mor Since Mr. Churchill is himself course, have still to come, whịn is a thing of the past,
rison touches nothing that he does Minister of Defence, and the the problems of peace and recon- *If no one had tried to fly. not innke clearly his own hand-greatest First Lord of modern struction begin to loom. In the Yet the organisation of
work He is clear-headed, in-times: it is inevitable that Mr. face of immense peril, Mr. Chur- justice in nations has or if no one had tried to wave, and works with an energy Alexander should to some extent chill has taught his colleagues lo made the medieval-feudal establish a reign of law-
that is remarkable. If he has a be overshadowed by his greater work with a single mind to vic- fault, it is that often excessive colleague. But the Navy has great tory: That, in itself, is a vital ser- wars a thing of the past. well, what?
tenderness for his own officials, al conidence
Alexan→ vice to the future of civilisation,
By contrast, any system/Amery's plans for India left the called for. But anyone who has the Churchill government, was the occupied territory in Europe,
means.
tance; and it is again an open